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I had my Wednesday email all ready to go this morning and got into my office and began to read my email and came across this one.

BreakPoint began several years ago with Chuck Colson. He began it with a radio broadcast 5 days a week, which they still do, and eventually added the email version which I have subscribed to ever since. Each day there are some incredible resources and items.

I read this one this morning and immediately knew that I wanted to share it. If you are so inclined, you can also subscribe to it and you’ll find that information near the bottom, but my purpose today was simply to share this because it tells the story of the church being the church. As you read it I hope it brings a smile to your face, but most importantly I hope it prompts you and me to ask ourselves the question, “What do we need to do to let the church be the church through us?”

Finally, you might have to search, but if you are one who looks at the Upcoming Events at the bottom of my weekly email, you’ll find it, again, at the bottom, of the BreakPoint stuff.

I recently heard a story involving Chuck Colson’s grandson, Max, that made me want to cry—and then, sing for joy.

As many BreakPoint listeners know, Chuck Colson’s twenty-three-year-old grandson Max is autistic. A few months ago Max’s mother, Emily, and Patty Colson took Max to see “Muppets Most Wanted” at a Boston-area theater. After settling themselves into their seats, the previews began. And that’s when things went south.

Normally, Max gets a bit excited at the beginning of a film, and then he calms down. But life with autism is unpredictable, as Emily wrote on a special needs parenting site. When the first preview exploded loudly onto the screen, Max covered his ears and shrieked, “I want to go home!” Emily tried to calm him, but as soon as Kermit the Frog appeared on the screen, Max shouted “The Muppet movie!”

When the volume spiked again, Max shouted once more “I want to go home!” That’s when other movie-goers let Emily know in painful and no-uncertain terms that Max was not welcome.

As Emily and Patty escorted Max out, the audience began to applaud. “It was the sound of an angry mob chasing us away with their jeers and taunts,” Emily writes.

It’s hard to recover from experiences like that. But God used it to offer a mighty blessing, not only to Max and Emily, but to hundreds of other special needs children.

Not long after Emily wrote about unexpectedly becoming the entertainment at the theater, a woman named Renee came up to Emily after church. “Do you think Max would like it if we rented a theater?” she asked.

The following Sunday, Pastor Paul told the congregation what had happened to Max, and announced Renee’s great idea: “She rented out an entire theater so that friends of Max can watch the Muppet movie with Max.” Pastor Paul declared, “If you’re a friend of Max, you’re going to the movies, whether you like Muppets or not!”

“Everyone laughed. And everyone bought tickets,” Emily writes.

A local newspaper picked up the story. Hearing of the event, called “Love to the Max,” a limousine company owner offered to take Max and his friends to the theater in style in a 37-foot limousine. The employees fought over who was going to have the honor of driving Max. The winner? A man whose own grandson was autistic.

The CEO of a local Friendly’s Restaurant offered gift certificates for ice cream or meals. People volunteered to help out at the theater, doing everything from taking kids to the bathroom to bringing them popcorn.

So many people bought tickets that the Regal Cinema had to expand the event to two theaters. In the end, 500 children, with their families and friends, went to see “Muppets Most Wanted.”

This time, when the Muppets began singing their first number, “the music catapulted Max right out of his seat,” Emily recalls. He began dancing in the aisle. The audience began to applaud as Max danced his way down the aisle, “grabbing hands and pulling others into his dance.”

The children enjoyed the film, and as it ended with a final Muppet song, nobody wanted to leave. “Suddenly, people flooded into the aisles [and] began to dance. Everyone free. No armor. No barriers between us,” Emily writes. “I looked around and wondered if this is what Jesus envisioned when he said, “Love one another . . . The joy was contagious.”

As Chuck would have said, this was the Church being the Church. People came to love on these kids, “the least of these” and their families. And they were living out 1 Cor. 12, which reminds us that all parts of the body of Christ should be valued and honored.

As Max danced for joy that day, I imagine Chuck was probably smiling down from Heaven on him and on this marvelous scene.

Upcoming Activities

Today, Wednesday April 23 – Join us for dinner tonight here in the gym at 5:00. Regular activities for teens and children as well as our Hispanic Bible Study, Prayer group at 6 in the sanctuary and Men’s study at 7:00.

Friday April 25-Sunday April 27 – Man Camp over at Bonita Park. If there are any men who haven’t signed up and would still like to go or need more information please contact Jerry Wright @ the following email address: deb.and.jerry.wright@gmail.com

Sunday April 27 – We will have our regular worship services at 8:45 and 10:30 a.m. as well as the Hispanic service at 4:00 p.m.

Thursday May 1 – The National Day of Prayer Breakfast at the Convention Center begins at 6:15 a.m. We have four tables that we have reserved and Donnie & Julia Glover have the tickets – the cost is only $10 and we would love for you to come and be a part of this very special event!

Friday May 2-Saturday May 3 – Feed My Starving Children Mobilepack event here in our gym. Go to the following website and sign up to pack meals www.FMSC.org/mobilepack/events When you get there go to New Mexico, then click on the Ruidoso event and then pick a time to pack on either Friday evening or Saturday. If you have never done this it will ask you to “Create a New Account.” You will then put your email address in, choose a password, give your address and accept their conditions and YOU ARE IN! We hope there are a GREAT number of Angus folks who sign up!

I love the words from Luke’s gospel account, found in 24:5-6; “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you . . .”

There are too many people who are living on the wrong side of the Resurrection. The SAD fact of the matter is, there are too many people who call themselves followers of Christ, who are living on the wrong side of the Resurrection. They walk around bemoaning life; their circumstances, their problems, the heartaches, the difficulties, and on and on and on and on and on . . .

I do NOT mean to make light of problems, circumstances, heartaches and difficulties . . . they are as much a part of life as anything else. But I also want to remind you that “He is not here; he has risen!” Don’t you see that because Jesus Christ is alive that there is the answer to the circumstances, the problems, the heartaches and the difficulties? Yes they are here . . . that is a fact! BUT THEY DO NOT HAVE THE LAST WORD . . . “He is not here; he has risen!” THAT IS THE LAST WORD! It is HOPE! It is a FUTURE! God has everything, God has every little thing (and the big things too) in HIS strong, mighty and capable hands.

This world that we live in does not have the last word; our problems and circumstances and heartaches and difficulties don’t have the last word; the IRS doesn’t have the last word; the government doesn’t have the last word; no preacher has the last word; health, or the lack thereof, doesn’t have the last word; cancer doesn’t have the last word; DEATH doesn’t have the last word; God will have the last word!

Why are you looking for life among the dead? Why are you wasting so much time living under the circumstances and letting your problems, heartaches and difficulties take the life out of you? “He is not there . . . He is risen!” Now, go tell somebody!

Upcoming Activities

Today, Wednesday April 16 – Holy Week Services at noon at First Baptist Church in Ruidoso – What an incredible chance to worship with fellow followers of Christ. There will be a meal following the service at noon. Then at 5 o’clock this evening you can come here to Angus and have dinner with us and be a part of the Wednesday evening activities here!

Thursday April 17 – Holy Week Services at noon at First Baptist Church in Ruidoso followed by a meal

Friday April 18 – Holy Week Services at noon at First Baptist Church in Ruidoso followed by a meal.

At 5:30 we will have our Passover Seder Meal here at the church and Valarie Moody will be leading the Seder. This is an incredible opportunity to prepare your hearts and minds to celebrate Resurrection! There are still tickets available; please call the church office to reserve your spot and so that we will know how many will be coming!

Sunday April 20 – RESURRECTION SUNDAY

6:15 a.m. – Sunrise Service at Prayer Pond together with Grace Harvest and Christ Community congregations 7:30 a.m. – The teens will be serving breakfast in the gym for a donation
7:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m. – We have a Bounce House for the children beside the gym
8:30 a.m. – The kids will have an Egg Hunt
9:00 a.m. – The children will have a special piñata out beside the gym
9:30 a.m. – We will have one Incredible Worship Service in the gym

Friday-Sunday April 25-27 – Our NM District Man Camp will take place at Bonita Park – All men are welcome – see Jerry Wright for more details!

Thursday May 1 – The Annual National Day of Prayer Lincoln County Prayer Breakfast will happen at 6:15 a.m. at the Convention Center. Angus Church has reserved 4 tables and we will have tickets available at church on Sunday. The cost of the tickets is only $10!

Friday-Saturday May 2-3 – Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack – We plan on packing over 100,000 Meals for starving children! You can sign up online for a two-hour packing session by going to www.FMSC.org/mobilepack/events When you get to that web page find New Mexico, then find Ruidoso, and you can sign up to pack! We would LOVE to put together some teams of 16-18 people from Angus Church to pack together! This is an incredible event that is fun and will help to feed starving children!

Sunday May 4 – We will be having our Annual Meeting and electing our officers for the coming year.